Chapter 1: Cold Weather and Hot Tempers
A bitter and cold wind whipped its way through Waffle Town on the 26th of autumn. Angela snuggled her face deeper into her scarf to shield it, but her attempt was in vain. A shiver racked her body. As she passed Sundae Inn she wondered to herself how it could possibly be so cold when winter had not yet begun.
Angela was on her way to the town hall for work. Because so little grew during the wintertime, she spent the days after the fall harvest there helping the friendly secretary, Elli, with paperwork and such. The pay was good and Elli was pleasant to be around, so she went every day, despite her ability to get a job closer to her home.
Well, that isn't the only reason I work there, Angela felt a blush creep up her neck.
Though she would never admit it to anyone but herself (and she sometimes had a difficult time doing that), the main reason she went every day to the town hall even though her home was so far away and the walk was long was because of a certain blond haired, blue eyed boy in a vest and tie.
Gill Hamilton, the dreamy son of the mayor himself, spent nearly every hour of the day serving the island that he would one day take over. Angela had found herself infatuated with such boy as soon as she had arrived on the island nearly two years ago.
I'm such a hopeless romantic, Angela grumbled in her head. He hardly even notices me at all, and I've worked with him for a long time.
Angela had arrived at the door to the hall and quickly shuffled in and slammed the door behind her to block out the horrible chill. Relieved to be back in the heat again, she smiled a greeting at Elli who was at her desk, as usual.
The motherly secretary smiled back and bid Angela a hello in her cheerful voice. "Hi Angela! How are you doing?"
Angela sighed as she removed her coat and scarf and placed them on the coat rack where she noticed Gill's coat was already hung. "I'm a bit frozen from the weather, but all in all I'm good." She told Elli.
Elli nodded sympathetically. "I know what you mean; the cold is horrible this time of year." Angela and Elli chatted for a few minutes longer, when Gill stalked quickly out of his office, startling the two women.
"Angela, you're late . . . again." He stated, a little annoyed by the sound of his voice.
She quickly glanced up at the clock. Ooh, she was late. About thirty minutes late. She bowed quickly at Gill as she apologized, "I'm so sorry. I guess I got lost in my thoughts on the way here. It won't happen again, I promise!"
Gill sighed as he stared his little serious glare at Angela, "That is what you said last time you were late. And what do you know, you were late again."
Angela amended her previous thought from the walk over, and when he does notice, it's because I did something wrong.
She switched tactics. If apologizing didn't work, than maybe something else would.
"I don't see what the big deal is. I mean, I was only thirty minutes late!" Angela retorted, hoping that he would let her off without too much of a struggle.
Gill shook his head, "Punctual is one of the most important things to be, and you are not. That's a problem that I can't overlook."
She was mad. Mad that Gill would lecture her and treat her like a child. Despite her crush on Gill, Angela was a strong willed farmer who didn't take this kind of crap from people like him. Sometimes she wondered why she had such a large crush on him.
"Who says I can't be late every once in a while! I apologized to you! What else do you want me to do?" She hated to raise her voice, but Gill just wouldn't budge.
"How about you quit acting like a child!" He retorted. His tone was no longer bored and slightly annoyed, but quite angry. Funny, she had never seen him get quite this mad.
The door opened. The arguers and Elli, who had been cowering behind her desk, turned to see who was entering the building. Turns out it was Mayor Hamilton, wearing his usual cheery if not slightly derpy face.
This was bad. Unlike Gill, who had no control over her, the mayor was her boss. And she had no doubt that Mister Prissy would tell him everything that had happened. She was afraid for her job.
Mayor Hamilton cheerily greeted everybody with a lilting, "Hello!" Only after he had received some halfhearted greetings in return did he realize that something was amiss.
"What is going on? Gilligan, Angela." He sounded calm and collected, not hinting at his actual mood.
Gill audibly swallowed to calm his anger before he spoke, "First of all, Father, please do not refer to me as 'Gilligan'. Second of all, Angela was late for the second time this week and I was advising her that punctuality is important."
More like 'lecturing', she thought. It seemed that Mayor Hamilton noticed her disgust and wanted to hear her side of the story. He told her so.
"Well," she began, "I was late. When I came in, I apologized and said that the time had gotten away from me. But we began to argue about it. Looking back on it now, it was kind of dumb to fight over such a trivial thing. I'm sorry." And she meant it. Her mind had calmed a bit and she realized that she had been kind of a jerk, even if Gill was being a bigger jerk.
Hamilton's eyes softened and he nodded at her apology, "Gilligan, I think you owe her an apology as well. It is not your job to discipline Angela if she is late."
Gill scoffed, "Fine. I apologize." He didn't sound like he meant it, but Angela felt like that was the best she was going to get out of him.
The mayor nodded again and said, "Now, as punishment for arguing and scaring the wits out of Elli, as well as being late Angela, Gill will walk you to work every morning until I see fit that he stops."
Shock was as apparent on Gill's face as she imagined the look on her face to be. It was rare to be punished by the mayor, as he was so sweet and kind. And this particular punishment was rather unorthodox.
"But, Father. Why?" Gill managed to get out after he had recovered from the start of having his usually unassertive father issue a punishment to him.
The mayor's smile had never faltered throughout the whole exchange, but it seemed to grow larger at Gill's question. "No buts, Gilligan. I want you to do this because I've asked you to do it," he said walking towards the stairs that led to the library. "If you need me, I'll be working on some paper work. Keep an eye on them, Elli," with his last remark he winked at Elli and an understanding seemed to pass between them. Elli smiled knowingly back at Hamilton.
That was strange, Angela thought before turning to her coworker and new walking mate. It seemed that he had calmed considerably and was back to his usual state of half boredom and entitlement, his eyes glazed over.
She stood there in front of him in awkward silence. He seemed to be analyzing her in his mind, as if taking another look at something he had not gotten such a good understanding of the first time he had looked. Angela didn't know if she was happy or embarrassed or angry, but whatever it was made a red blush flare on her cheeks.
That moment concluded as quickly as it had started and soon Gill addressed her with, "Now that this whole ordeal is behind us, I suggest you get to work, Miss Angela." And with that he stalked back into his small office, pride a little wounded.
Angela decided to shut her mouth for once, and complied. Besides, she needed to think about how she was going to deal with more than her daily dose of Gill.